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'Twerk' and 'Selfie' Added To Online Dictionary

Twerking, a sexually-charged dance where the protagonist shakes his or her buttocks often against a partner, made headlines this week after Miley Cyrus performed the move at the MTVMTVVideo Music Awards. It is now being added to the Oxford Dictionary Online, alongside words like “selfie,” “bitcoin” and “emoji.”

The Oxford Dictionary Online suggests “twerk” probably originated in the 1990s as “an alteration of work.”

Katherine Connor Martin of Oxford Dictionaries told the AP: “There are many theories about the origin of this word, and since it arose in oral use, we may never know the answer for sure.”

Portmanteaus including “jorts” – jean shorts – and “flatforms” – flat platforms – also made it in to the dictionary’s quarterly update, as did many words first used online. “Derp” (a substitute for speech regarded as meaningless or stupid) and “TL;DR” (too long; didn’t read) were included, in addition to “unlike,” a verb referring to the social media action of “unliking” a post you have previously “liked.”

Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley School of Information, and emeritus chair of the American Heritage Dictionary usage panel said: “It used to be in order to make the dictionary you had to have respectable antecedents in literary usage, but now they pick words because of Reddit and things like that generating buzz.”

The Oxford Dictionaries Online reflects language used in present day and consequently includes around 1,000 new entries a year, while the elder, more official, Oxford English Dictionary, rarely adds words. Both are published by the Oxford University Press.

While some may bemoan the inclusion of trendy and technological words like “selfie,” these new additions to the Oxford Dictionary Online do not signify the death of the English language. Rather, they show language to be what it is – a living, changing mode of communication which alters as our world does.

“Judged on purely linguistic grounds, all languages — and all dialects — have equal merit,” wroteMargalit FoxFox ofThe New York Times.

“Many Americans believe that there exists a single standard dialect — the one broadcasters use — kept free of vernacular encroachments. But in reality, no one such creature exists.”

Languages change all the time. Outrage at the addition of new words to the online dictionary might be due to what academics call “prestige.” Basically, we assign forms of language hierarchical values they don’t actually have, so some – like academic writing or traditional high-brow dictionary entries – could be considered overtly prestigious. Others, like Internet speak and slang terms associated with youth culture, aren’t assigned prestige, but are still valid language forms because they effectively communicate. Tell your 14-year-old daughter you want to take a selfie together, and I guarantee she’ll know what you mean.

“Derp was a word in the language before ODO put it in,” Nunberg confirmed. “But most of these words won’t live as long as your hamster.”

Nunberg sees the introduction of popular new words as an attention-grabbing tactic used by dictionaries to differentiate themselves by being up-to-date.

Linguist John McWhorter, a professor at Columbia University, noted via email: ”On one hand, we have a natural sense that some words are just passing fancies that shouldn’t be documented.”

“But then, we have to think about history. Won’t we want to know in a hundred years — or even fifty — that words like TWERK and SELFIE existed? In the twenties and thirties Texas teens would greet each other with “What’s up, Doc?” One of them went on to help create Bugs Bunny, and that’s the only way we know those Texas kids were saying that.”

“We need to get as many words as possible on record, including the vulgar, transitory ones,” Professor McWhorter concluded.

And while Cyrus didn’t prompt the inclusion of “twerking” in the online dictionary, her actions on such a public stage highlighted the verb is now mainstream; in language and culture.

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